PLoS/HIFA2015 Webinar, 28th March 2012: Can Open Access publishing provide Healthcare Information For All by 2015

Dear Nursing Education Network colleagues,

I am delighted to join this forum. I am committed to meeting the information needs of healthcare professionals - including and especially nurses - in low and middle income counries. We are holding a seminar with the leading Open Access publisher PLoS to look at the role of Open Access in meeting the information needs of nurses and other healthcare professionals.

You are invited to attend the first HIFA2015 Webinar, supported by PLoS, the Public Library of Science, a HIFA2015 Supporting Organisation and a leading publisher of open access journals. The event will take place on 28th March 2012 at 15:00-16:30h London/UK time (=14:00-15:30h GMT) and the theme is:

Can Open Access publishing provide Healthcare Information For All by 2015?

At the bottom of this message are details on how to prepare for this event.

Healthcare Information For All by 2015 is the goal of HIFA2015, on online community of thousands of health professionals, publishers, librarians and others worldwide who are committed to a future where healthcare providers will have access to the healthcare knowledge they need to prevent and manage disease and injury. Today, people are dying for lack of knowledge. By 2015, lack of access to basic healthcare knowledge will no longer be a major contributing factor to avoidable death and suffering in poor and middle-income countries.

Over the next 2 weeks, starting TODAY 14th March, we shall start to explore the issues here on the HIFA2015 email forum. Here are some issues to consider - what do you think?

1. MEETING INFORMATION NEEDS: Articles in Open Access journals are available free to anyone with an internet connection, and can be freely shared and reproduced. To what extent do current OA journals help healthcare providers (doctors, nurses, midwives...) to reduce suffering and save lives in poor and middle-income countries? Do current OA journals provide the information healthcare providers need? Or, at the moment, are they only relevant to special groups such as researchers, development professionals, academics and high-level professionals?

2. WHERE THERE IS NO INTERNET: What about the vast majority of healthcare providers in low and middle-income countries (LMICs), who do not have regular internet access? Do OA journals make any difference to them - perhaps indirectly, by allowing re-use? For example, printing and incorporation in teaching aids? What advantages (or disadvantages) do OA journals bring to those who are responsible for production of systematic reviews, for guideline development, and for production of reference and educational materials?

3. HOW CAN OPEN ACCESS PUBLISHING BE DEVELOPED FURTHER in the coming 3 years to help ensure that healthcare providers in LMICs will have access to the information they need to learn, to diagnose, to manage and prevent disease, and to save lives and reduce suffering? How can open access publishers work with healthcare providers to support a transition from information dependence to information autonomy and thereby contribute to overall sustainable economic development and enhanced quality of life in LMICs.--

HOW TO PREPARE FOR THE FIRST HIFA2015 WEBINAR

Here are the details you need to prepare for the HIFA2015 Webinar (please forward this email to your contacts and networks and encourage them to join us):

If you would like to participate in the webinar, we encourage you to please contact us to register (free) by 21st March. Please send your name, position, organisation and country of residence to: webinars@hifa2015.org

Registration is recommended and will help us understand who is our audience and will help us to prepare the Webinar, but it is not mandatory - anyone can join the session directly on the day without prior registration.

We shall be using Elluminate Live! web conferencing software. If you are not familiar with Elluminate, please join us for a practice session online in the week before the conference. There will be two practice sessions:

Anyone with an interest is welcome to participate. All you need is an internet connection and a headset (headphones and built-in microphone). You will need to set up your computer before the event. This can be done any time, any day. Once you are set up, you will be able to participate in any HIFA2015 Webinar. Instructions to set up are here: http://bit.ly/hifa2015-setup

Please contact us if you have any questions regarding content or technical problems: webinars@hifa2015.org

Virginia Barbour, Chief Editor, PLoS Medicine

Donna Okubo, Senior Manager of Community Outreach and Advocacy, PLoS

Neil Pakenham-Walsh, Coordinator, HIFA2015

About PLoS

PLoS is a nonprofit publisher and advocacy organization. The mission of PLoS is to accelerate progress in science and medicine by leading a transformation in research communication. Everything that PLoS publishes is open-access ­ freely available online for anyone to use. Sharing research encourages progress, from protecting the biodiversity of our planet to finding more effective treatments for diseases such as cancer.

About HIFA2015

HIFA2015 (Healthcare Information For All by 2015) is a global campaign and knowledge network administered by the Global Healthcare Information Network, a non-profit organisation working to improve the quality of health care in developing countries. HIFA2015 is one of 5 global forums collectively known as HIFA Global Forums, bringing together more than 7500 health workers, librarians, publishers, researchers and policymakers in more than 2000 organisations across 163 countries worldwide, in 3 languages (English, French, Portuguese). One-third of our members are based in Africa, one-third in Europe, and one-third in the rest of the world. We are committed to a common goal: By 2015, every person worldwide will have access to an informed health care provider. Over 130 leading health and development organisations worldwide have declared their commitment to the HIFA2015 goal. Together we are working for a future where people are no longer dying for lack of basic healthcare knowledge. Further information: www.hifa2015.org